Unite India campaign

The Unite India campaign was an initiative by the Indian government under Jawaharlal Nehru to invest hundreds millions of dollars for public spending on the construction of roads and railroads across the country. The campaign was the brainchild of the Indian National Congress, whose socialist views included the public's assistance in building India into a powerful nation. From 1949 into the mid-1950s, India constructed roads and railroads across the country to facilitate travel between major cities and villages, some of which had not been linked to any other towns due to the lack of transportation. The campaign saw a National Highway System-like transportation system be implemented in India, and a man in Nagaland could travel to Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, or Kashmir down the many major roads or railroads. The campaign was a large success, and it coincided with the construction of new factories and military facilities across India, which was modernizing to become a world power.

Despite the success of the public works campaign, the Unite India campaign was criticized by both political wings, with both conservative and liberal politicians voicing their concerns over the expenses that the government had to cover as well as the environmental impact. The Nagaland region, mostly jungle and with almost no industrial importance to the government, was transformed in the course of a few years into a center of Indian factories. Trees were mowed down and roads and railroads replaced them, and many liberal environmental activists were opposed to this; in addition, the campaign build roads that led to the borders with Pakistan, East Pakistan, Tibet, and Burma, which conservatives saw as an affront to India's independence and superiority over its neighbors. The campaign costed hundreds of millions of dollars, although its results ultimately led to the Indian country becoming connected by several roads, which now extended to the Gujarat desert region, which was sparsely populated.